After years of failing to gain enough interest, Linda Trecker’s Pathways to Teaching class is finally in session, but not for long.
“I actually signed up for the class all four years [of high school], but there were never enough students signed up,” senior Rebekah Poscover said.
This year, they had 15 people sign up, enough for a full class.
“I might want to be a teacher when I grow up so I thought I should take the class to get experience and see if it is something I would actually be interested in,” senior Jaime Gottlieb said.
Some students, like Gottlieb, are using this course to help them make a possible career choice. Other students, such as Poscover, already have a pretty solid idea of what they want to do.
“I want to be a teacher when I’m older,” Poscover said. “It just seemed like a good introduction class.”
According to Trecker, Pathways to Teaching is best summarized as an “introductory class”.
“It’s Teacher Ed. 101,” Trecker said. “It will benefit students that are interested in becoming a teacher because it is pretty much the same introduction to the teaching type class they will have at the college level.”
The class begins with questioning students regarding why they want to become a teacher. They then move on to activities that vary from developing each student’s particular philosophy in writing lesson plans. Being a couple weeks into the class, the students have already been able to engage in some of the activities.
“One of the first things we did was make a little lesson plan,” Gottlieb said. “It wasn’t anything official, but we took a survey to figure out the best way we learn and we made the lesson plan based on that. It was interesting.”
While students such as Gottlieb and Poscover seem to have enjoyed the process so far, they are still excited for experiences to come.
“I think it would be awesome to get to shadow a teacher because it could be very beneficial for me,” Poscover said.
Unfortunately, according to Trecker, there is not much more experience that this class can offer than allowing the students to observe a classroom. That was a factor in the course leaving Parkway Central next year and becoming a part of the district wide organization, Spark!.
“Spark! provides high school students in the Parkway School District with dynamic, immersion-based student learning experiences to ensure students can understand and respond to an ever-changing world,” Career and Technical Education coordinator Jennifer Stanfill said.
A very inclusive program, Spark! goes outside of the district to create this different learning environment. Their goal is to work together with business partners as community service and educational leaders.
Making the students a priority, Stanfill felt that the experience that Spark! provides those in this course was enough to make the move.
“[This course] allows students interested in teaching and learning to fully immerse themselves in the profession through observation, interaction and teaching,” Stanfill said.
Stanfill recognizes the similarities between this program at Central and at Spark!, but feels that there is more upside to moving this class in particular.
“Spark! experiences are developed based on the interests of students, therefore, each student’s experience may look different,” Stanfill said. “This is different than the Career Pathways to Teaching course which is driven by a district-wide, guaranteed curriculum.”
Although Trecker will not be teaching the class next year, she too realizes the perks of the switch.
“I think it’s a really good class but I’m not sad that its not going to be here because I feel like that’s a specific career pathway,” Trecker said. “If students know that it is something they want to do, then they will have all morning instead of just a 50 or a 90 minute class. I think you need a lot of different experiences in teaching before you really know.”